(I try not to bore you with too much behind-the-scenes technical info. Let me just say that not everything is working as it should. For now, I can post, and you can comment; that’s the most important stuff, right?)

The other day I talked about the Christian calendar. Along the way, I mentioned that I’ve been following the lectionary. Let me comment on that.

• To me, the lectionary is basically a structured Bible reading plan. At its core, it’s merely a listing of Bible verses to be read at a certain time.
• At a deeper level, I think the lectionary provides me with a community to read and study with. It’s a broad community, made up largely of people I don’t know. Their views are widely divergent, which in this case I view as a good thing. I need to hear the views of people I disagree with, not just those that see things as I do.
• The lectionary leads me to places in Scripture I wouldn’t necessarily go. I don’t mean interpretations, but parts of the text that I might not read otherwise. I’ve found the same to be true when teaching through a book or even teaching a book that I’ve never taught before. (Paul wisely observed the other days that there are holes in the lectionary’s selections; this is very true, as is true of every systematic approach to teaching Scripture I’ve seen)
• So far, I haven’t seen much interest in those that fill in when I’m not preaching. However, the lectionary would provide continuity should they choose to follow the readings.

A couple of resources that I use are lectionarypage.net and textweek.com. Take a look at those pages if you want to learn more about the lectionary.